Many aspects of modern commercial aircraft are manufactured in accordance with the particular requirements of the aircraft owner. One such aspect is the arrangement of the passenger seats and other payloads (e.g. partitions, galleys, lavatories, and other aircraft components) within the cabin of the aircraft.
For example, FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a seat assembly 100 in accordance with the prior art. The seat assembly 100 includes one or more seat members 102 coupled to a pair of support members 104. A floor assembly 108 that supports the seat members 102 includes a pair of seat tracks 106 and a plurality of floor panels 112 disposed on opposing sides of the seat tracks 106. Attachment assemblies 110 attach the support members 104 to the seat tracks 106 of the floor assembly 108. As best shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 2, the upper surfaces of the floor panels 112 are approximately flush with an engagement member 114 of the seat track 106, thereby providing a suitable floor surface for the passengers. Seat assemblies of the type shown in FIG. 1 are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,619,588 B2 issued to Lambiaso, U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,798 B2 issued to Cawley, U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,813 B1 issued to Whitcomb, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,979 issued to Bales et al.
FIG. 3 is an example of a perspective view of the seat track 106 of FIGS. 1 and 2. As shown in FIG. 3, the engagement member 114 of the seat track 106 is coupled to a structural member 116. Upper surfaces 118 of the structural member 116 engage and support the floor panels 112 (FIG. 2) adjacent the engagement member 114. A plurality of attachment devices 119 (FIG. 2) couple the floor panels 112 to the structural member 116. As further shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a slot (or recess) 120 is disposed within the engagement member 114. The slot 120 forms a plurality of alternating holes 122 and lands 124 that are adapted to cooperatively engage the attachment assembly 110. In operation, the attachment assembly 110 is engaged into one of the holes 122, and is slideably moved along the slot 120 to a desired location, at which point the attachment assembly 110 is secured to one of the lands 122. Thus, the slot 120 permits the seat member 102 to be selectively positioned at any desired location along the seat track 106. Thus, the seat assembly 100 allows the aircraft owner to control the spacing of the seat members 102 within the aircraft.
Although desirable results have been achieved using the prior art seat assembly 100, there is room for improvement. In some aircraft configurations, for example, there may be portions of the passenger cabin that do not require passenger seats, and therefore, there may be no need for the seat tracks 106. Using the prior art floor assembly 108, however, the seat tracks 106 remained exposed and visible even though they are not needed. Furthermore, because the floor panels 112 “break” on opposing sides of the engagement member 114 of the seat track 106, the labor and expense associated with sealing and securing the edges of the floor panels 112 to the channel members 116 must be incurred even though there is no need to install seat members 102 on the seat tracks 106. Also, wire systems running in proximity to and parallel with the seat tracks 106 must be undesirably positioned on top of the floor panels 112. Therefore, novel floor assemblies which at least partially mitigate these characteristics would be useful.